News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The White County School Board will stay with its current evaluation instrument this year to evaluate the Director of Schools.
Multiple White County School Board members want to look at a new evaluation instrument for Director Kurt Dronebarger. However, the consensus during school board discussion Thursday night, it would be unfair the change the goals more than halfway into the school year.
“I’d hate for my boss to come and say, ‘hey, this is your valuation, and we changed it yesterday, and we’re going to evaluate you on what we did the previous eleven months and 29 days previously, but on these new objectives,'” Board Member Jayson McDonald said.
Board Member Adam Hickey said he thought a new instrument should be constructed for the 24-25 school year. Dronebarger likened the change to the recent state school grades, in which the evaluation points were chosen and the grades released within weeks of each other.
The board will hold a work session to discuss a new instrument for evaluating Dronebarger. The director’s new contract included a 90-day term for an evaluation, but Dronebarger said he would be ok with taking a little more time.
“I would rather us take time and do this right,” Dronebarger said. “It’s in my best interest to do this right. And I think in the board’s best interest to get it in an instrument that’s going to evaluate me that you’re satisfied with.”
McDonald suggested starting with a standard evaluation from the Tennessee School Boards Association. It includes multiple areas, grading the director on a 1 to 5 scale. Much of the evaluation would be data-driven, centered on how the White County system grades on various indices.
Dronebarger suggested using state averages and a similar approach to how he grades his team.
“I expect White County to be above state average and top five in Upper Cumberland,” Dronebarger said.
Concern among some board members centered on the length of the evaluation and the data that would need to be consumed.
In other business, the board agreed to a lease with Home Church for the auxiliary gym at White County High School. Dronebarger said this is a start up church.
